Trav's Ten Takeaways: Colorado Win

Via Travis Rooke-ley

Been a fun few days following the media attention coming out of the Ducks dominant effort Saturday. Not sure I’ve ever seen so many bad takes, with just a few listed below to give you a chuckle. Overall, a really impressive game from the Ducks in all three phases, especially the pass defense. 

1. Nix/Offense: Besides two misses, a dig to Holden, and the underthrown pick to Franklin, Bo played another nearly flawless game. He really wasn’t asked to do much down the field, as a majority of his throws were screens or RPO throws near the LOS. Rather than using him in the run game to gain an advantage, Stein is clearly prioritizing simple RPO throws to keep the numbers in an advantageous spot. A smart decision against an overmatched team like the Buffs. I imagine we will see both more Bo with his legs, and a more aggressive downfield attack come the difficult October stretch. 

2. Bucky: What a freaking animal. I absolutely love watching his run, dragging dudes 50 pounds heavier on a weekly basis. I think we are smartly saving his hits so far this season and expect to see his touches increase into October. I can’t ever remember an Oregon RB, even the James and Barners of the world, being so tough to bring down. 

3. OL Rotation: Really like that we’ve been able to rotate some meaningful reps for some young OL in each game. At different points on Saturday, you saw both Iuli and Poncho running with the starters, meaning the addition of Strother gets us to 8 above-average linemen. Nice to be at a point before October where we can withstand an injury inside, and guys can continue to develop into a more cohesive unit. 

4. Penalties: They’ve got to stop. It almost cost us the Tech game and will result in a loss against the top half of this league. When you play good teams, 1st and 10 vs. 1st and 15 makes a huge difference. Heck, you saw it last year against UW on the bad snap; getting behind the chains can cost points and the game. We absolutely have to clean this up by UW. 

5. Evan Williams and Khyree Jackson/Tackling: Can’t remember a better game out of our secondary since 2019. Overall, the tackling in space is much much improved this year, as Colorado got nothing after the catch on Saturday. Jackson played a hell of a game at CB, showing great speed, athleticism and actually turning to find the ball. Between him and Florence, our DBs are playing at a really high level. Similarly, you can see how the versatility of Evan Williams helps this defense. He was everywhere Saturday, and I love how our DCs are using him in the blitz game. 

6. Young DEs: Given that our defense is playing at a really high level right now, it is exciting that it’s coming with three true freshman edges getting a ton of reps. Between Matayo, Purchase, and Tuioti, we are seeing most possessions be impacted positively by one of these guys. They are only going to get better as the season goes on and are going to grow into a really great edge group over the next 2-3 years. 

7. Two-Point Conversations/Fake Punt: I absolutely love the attention being played to small margins on special teams, illustrated by the amazing fake punt. What a cool moment for Rogers. I’m down for the two-point conversations when we have numbers and it makes sense, but Saturday’s try felt forced. I hope we don’t get to a UW or Utah and cost us points with a failed try, we call that a Nebraska 2017. 

8. Injuries: Definitely the most beat-up we left a game this year. Noah went down pretty bad and I’d be surprised if we see him in the next month. Thankfully, or RB room is deep and think we’ll be fine moving forward with Bucky and James. On the other hand, both Addison and Florence left the game Saturday, and we absolutely need them both at full strength against UW. I know Addison missed practice Tuesday, but give these guys the full two weeks to get healthy. 

9. Worst Takes of Monday: Boy, I could write an essay here. Dez Bryant said it was disrespectful for us to fake punt up 13-0. Yes, thanks Dez! Shannon Sharpe said that Oregon is lucky that Deion gave us a platform to have people watch our games. Good call Shannon, no one ever watches Oregon nationally! The entire Undisputed show continues to be a disgrace to humanity culminating in Keyshawn Johnson claiming other coaches colluded to help us win. Finally! That would have certainly been a tight game otherwise so I’m grateful all those other coaches told us exactly what we knew after watching five minutes of tape: Colorado is soft. Finally, Monday night gave us the greatest video ever created by Oregon Football which you can see here: https://x.com/oregonfootball/status/1706497804615757877?s=20

After news of Sanders pissing blood after the game hit last night, one can’t help but revisit the old f**k around and find out graph. 

10. Conference and National Takeaways: Who are you guys truly afraid of if we can make a run to the CFP this year? The QBs of Georgia, Bama, LSU, and Ohio State don’t exactly inspire fear in me. Do I trust Texas or Florida State yet? No. Michigan hasn’t played well yet, and the SC defnese continues to be putrid. Honestly, and it hurts, but the two most dominant teams have been UW and Penn State. If that’s who I have to hear, I like our chances. Long story short, this PAC-12 season is going to be a grind. If we can somehow leave with one loss and a PAC-12 title, I like our chances in the CFP. Our defense continues to be underrated nationally and not many teams can match our balance on offense. Most importantly, our staff knows we’re really good as they aren’t releasing that pregame footage without confidence that we’re about to roll.